Suite 1600 Score And Parts

SKU: PR.114407260

UPC: 680160011209.

Ports of Call, a suite of five movements for two violins and guitar was written for the Trio Triento for their New York debut. Composed in the Summer of 1992, it was premiered in April 1993. 1992 was the 500th anniversary of the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain and, of course, Columbus' trip to America. To commemorate these important events, I was commissioned by organizations in 20 major cities to write an oratorio. The result was Ever Since Babylon. The musical material was greatly influenced by tunes from around the Mediterranean region. These Sephardic melodies took on treat meaning for me, and I took five of them and expanded them into these five pieces which are actually dances. I felt that the combination of two violins and guitar lent itself well as a vehicle for this music. The names of the cities are used because the tunes originated in these particular locations. Marseille, a typical provencale dance with naturally changing meters and a light, airy, touch. Alexandria, much more mysterious and languid, reflecting the heat and inertia of that glorious city in slow though sometimes steady movement. Salonika, a wild dance in typical Greek fashion celebrating a holiday with abandon. The whirling movement goes relentlessly from beginning to end. Haifa is represented by two beautiful chant-like pastoral tunes which introduce the beauty and luminous quality of this, one of the most beautiful parts in the Eastern Mediterranean. Valencia, the last, a tribute to medieval Spain. The music is a culmination of the influences of the three great cultures, Moslem, Christian, and Jewish, which flourished there for hundreds of years. It is an uplifting dance with just a tinge of sadness in the center, since the Golden Age of which the tune was a part, had come to a tragic end in 1492. --Samuel Adler.

SKU: PR.144404260

UPC: 680160030460.

In 1999, while packing up myriad boxes to move to a new home (following academic retirement from Eastman School of Music), I stumbled-literally-over a short string suite of five vignettes I had composed during the 1950's as a college freshman. They had never been performed. I decided to transcribe them for the American Saxophone Quartet following a request from that august ensemble. Other than slightly lengthening the first ditty to accommodate an imperious alto sax which thinks it can play ALL of the 4-part fugal entries itself, I made few changes from the original youthful version. The first four movements each feature one of the quartet members as a leading voice, the others largely accompanying; everyone shares the wealth in the final dance. The whole piece is very tonal (with centers on A, D, E, G and D respectively) and make copious use of a jazz/pop music ambience that was prevalent in my first-year-conservatory world at the time. The five Snippets are approximately twelve minutes in duration and are affectionately dedicated to my long-standing friend, the saxophone virtuoso Albert Regni. The work was complete in 1954 in Rochester, New York and transcribed in Ormond, Florida, during the summer of 2000. The American Saxophone Quartet, founded by Mr. Regni, gave the premiere performances in New York City. --Sydney Hodkinson.